The elements combined in the idea of the Homeric Ἄτη, and the conditions of her action, may be presented together as follows:
1. She takes the reins of the understanding and conduct of a man.
2. She effects this not by force from without, but through the medium of his own will and inward consent, whether unconscious or express.
3. Under her dominion he commits offences against the moral law, or the law of prudence.
4. These offences are followed by his retributive sufferings.
The function of the Tempter is here represented with great precision; but two essential variations have come to be perceptible in the idea taken as a whole.
The first, that this Ἄτη is herself sometimes prompted or sent by others, as by Ἐρίνυς, (Od. xv. 234,) or by her with Ζεὺς and Μοῖρα, as in Il. xix. 87. And accordingly she too is a daughter, nay, the eldest daughter, of Jupiter himself[283].
The second variation is this: that offences against the mere law of prudence find their way into precisely the same category with sins; or, in other words, the true idea of sin had been lost. Ἄτη the person, and ἄτη the effect, are, moreover, frequently blended by the Poet.
Among the principal Ἄται of Homer are those,